Pre-Vet Student Finds Purpose in Passion for Animals

There’s the cute and cuddly side of working with animals. And then there’s catheterization and necropsies.

“I love both,” says Rebekah Sartori, a pre-vet Senior. “The first time I put on sterile gloves and watched a surgery I got so excited.”

Her four years at UCF are just one chapter in what she plans to be a lifetime dedicated to caring for animals. The affinity for animals started at age 7 when she swore off meat and began adopting pets; her current roster includes four cats and a chinchilla. When it came time to a pick a university and a career the choice was clear.

“I wanted to go somewhere close to home, so UCF was an easy choice,” Sartori says. “And veterinary medicine was obvious.”

With graduation on the horizon, Sartori has narrowed her focus on shelter medicine. That includes caring for homeless pets, as well as tasks like clearing up parasites and sterilizing pets given up for adoption.

While classes have prepared her to move on to veterinary school, they’ve also introduced her to people just as passionate about animals. Sartori is currently the outreach director for the Pre-Veterinary Society at UCF, which has given her the chance to talk with incoming freshman and high school students. Part of her advice is take academics seriously, because bad grades can’t be reversed. She also prepares new students for the side of veterinary medicine that’s not cute and fuzzy. But she also speaks on the rewards of pursuing a career you’re passionate about.

“Animals are the most pure thing on the planet. They have no hidden motivations,” Sartori says.